Whoops – we realized Monday morning that we had completely forgotten last week’s WiR. The team was in Orlando for the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, and after a great weekend of racing and a little too much fun recovering, it completely slipped our mind to publish the WiR. But fear not, the WiR is back this week!
Over the past two weeks we have published some great articles covering everything from Garmin’s CES introductions to our long-term review of Look’s Kéo Blade 2s. We also spent time with Silca’s removable valve core extensions – a product that most of the team is now running on their personal bikes.
Readers’ Rides
This week we’re featuring Kent’s P2 fully loaded with XLAB accessories. Kent was the winner of our One-Million-View Giveaway where he won a fully loaded setup from XLAB.
- Torpedo System 100 (our review here)
- Stealth Pocket 400 (our review here)
- Chimp Cage
- Race Belt
- Aqua Shot Bottle
- Reusable Blue tote
Check out his P2 below!
For those visiting for the first time—welcome! One of our favorite ways to showcase our readers is our Readers’ Rides album on Facebook. You can check it out at http://on.fb.me/12jEqE3. If you would like to have your bike featured in our album just tweet us at @AeroGeeks, Facebook message us, or email us at info@AeroGeeks.com.
This Week’s Posts (and the week before)
Monday – Torhans AeroZ – First Ride
Tuesday – Garmin’s 2015 Lineup – First Look
Wednesday – 110% Katalyst Short Sleeve – Review
Thursday – Silca Removable Valve Core Extensions – Review
Wednesday – ISM Adamo PN 1.1 – First Look
Thursday – Look Keo Blade 2 CR Pedal – Review
Fairwheel Bikes Road Bike Crank Test
Last week Fairwheel Bikes released their newest road bike crank test. For those unfamiliar, Fairwheel bikes has been doing road crank tests for the past few years and does their best to break the results (and the science) into the easiest format possible. This year’s test was no exception. Check out the results here http://bit.ly/RoadBikeCrankTest.
How Aero are Disc Brakes
At Interbike the last two years, one of the big questions we had was when would we start seeing disc brakes hit the triathlon market. There are a few bikes out there, but none of the major frame (or wheel) manufactures have jumped into the TT\Tri disc brake market. And every time we have inquired why, the answer has been weight and aerodynamics. Most manufacturers felt that the aerodynamic effects would counter the breaking benefits. So we were super excited when we found not one, but two separate tests done on the aero effects of disc brakes. First up was Specialized using their own wind tunnel.
Specialized found almost no difference – 8 seconds over 40km. VeloNews took a pair of Specialized S-Works Tarmacs to the A2 tunnel for their own test and, interestingly enough, their results did come out different. You can check out Velo’s test here http://bit.ly/1zqtSt9.
For those curious about the difference, Mark Cote commented on Specialized’s YouTube thread to clear up some of the data discrepancies (most noticeably that Specialized used a rider while Velo did not).
“Our results are VERY similar to November/Velo/A2’s results. The interpretations might’ve been a bit different, but as a percentage of bike drag, the A2 test showed a 1.8% drag savings to go to rim brakes versus disc. The same would be true from the Specialized data – as a bike and rider, the savings would be about 0.5% of the total bike and rider. From our bike alone data (not part of the video, but we’ve run it on our own), we’ve seen very similar savings to the A2 data.
A few quick things:
The A2 test was bike alone vs. bike alone. The bikes tested were slightly different. The A2 test used different wheels and tires than the Specialized test.
Head On (0 deg).
The delta from the A2 test was 20 gF (@ 30mph) which is about 0.002 m^2 in Cd*A (m^2).
The delta from the Specialized tests was 0.000 m^2 in CdA (m^2).
While there’s a difference here, it’s small and could come down to differences in bike build, cable routing, etc.
Crosswind
The delta from the A2 test and the Specialized test was 0.002 m^2 in CdA at 10 deg. Our results were near identical despite a different test protocol. Note we tested way more than just 0 and 10 deg at Specialized but we did simplify the results just for this video.” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXQuSnKkS-I
Current Reviews
- Wahoo KICKR – It’s trainer season, and we got to spend our first indoor ride on the KICKR. It’s way too early for final impressions, but our first thought is how ‘road like’ it feels.
- Specialized S-Works Women’s Prevail – While the rest of the nation is riding indoors, we’re lucky enough to still be able to hit the roads here in South Florida. We got our first ride in with the Women’s Prevail, and so far we like it. Our multisport editor didn’t really appreciate the benefit of the ‘HairPort’ until this ride – it’s a nice little addition that makes this helmet just that much more comfortable on long rides.
- Garmin 920xt – We simply love this watch. We still have barely scratched the surface on everything it can do, yet it has remained our daily watch for both work and play. The smart notifications are fantastic. Whether sitting in a meeting or halfway through a 10-mile run, they are a great way to get that little reminder from the spouse that you need to pick up milk on your way home.
- Flo Disc – Flo sent us their disc back in 2014 and we are finally wrapping up our time with it. Expect our review in the next week or so.
- Kuat NV – One of the things we tell all of our friends is that you need a great bike rack. It makes no sense to load up your not-so-cheap frame on a very cheap rack. We were already fans of the Kuat Sherpa, so we decided to take a look at its big brother. First thing we found is that while the Sherpa could handle wheels up to 90mm deep, the NV needed extender straps for anything over 72mm. Not a huge deal, but definitely something to take note of. Stay tuned as we start to put it through its paces, as well as the integrated repair stand.